Siege of Meerut

The Siege of Meerut was one of the first battles of the First Indian War of Independence, caused by the refusal of the Indian Sepoys to chew into pig fat cartridges of Enfield Rifles. The Indians burnt down Fort Ingoldsby and Fort Good Hope as well as the command post, having used the mines to infiltrate the fort.

Background
The Sepoys serving under the British East India Company, who were a different race and religion than their European masters, were already unhappy serving under the British by the time they received their new Enfield rifles. The regiments had encamped at the EIC base at Meerut, after stopping the Indian rebels from burning down Calcutta, and were under the command of George Edwardson, but they mainly pledged their allegiance to Lieutenant Nanib Sahir. The new Enfield Rifles were promising, but the straw that broke the camel's back was the pig fat in the cartridges: it was considered to offend Hinduism for one to consume pork in any form. The Sepoys threw the rifles on the ground, and Edwardson demanded that Sahir, also a Hindu, demonstrate on how to load a rifle. Sahir persistently refused to fire, and when Edwardson threatened him, Sahir picked up the rifle and shot a dragoon next to Edwardson. The colonel forced the Sepoys out of the fort, and Nanib started a mutiny.

Siege
Nanib's Sepoys built a base outside of the fort, and when a force of Company Musketeers and Sepoys attacked the base, the Sepoys in the British contingent defected and aided Nanib. Pravar Patel, another officer in the Company, became Nanib's second-in-command, and aided him in building an army of sepoys. They also built a consulate, and they allied with the Ottoman Empire, gaining access to their Tufanci Corps of Janissaries and Great Bombards. Nanib utilized these units by sending them to pound the British fortress' gates while he led his men through the mines. The gates were knocked down after stubborn fighting, but the Tufanci Corps failed to break through further. It mattered not; Nanib's men in the mines blew up the gunpowder stashed in the tunnels, destroying the rear walls to the British fort, and the Indians assaulted the Company base from the rear. The Tufanci Corps burnt Fort Ingoldsby and Fort Good Hope, assisted by their cannon, while the Indians destroyed the Command Post at the rear of the base. Without the post, the British were defeated, and Edwardson was fortunate to escape the slaughter. Meerut's fall is celebrated as a local holiday, as it was considered to be the true start of the Indian Rebellion.